Oldish Psych and Prog

I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die was also excellent including a more polished version of its title track; Janis, the beautiful love song McDonald wrote at the end of his romance with Janis Joplin; Eastem Jam, an electric instrumental with fine guitar interplay and Who Am I? which captures the band in more reflective mood. Also of interest were the drug-induced Thought Dream, the Bomb Song an anti-nuke anthem and the notorious Acid Commercial:-

'Now if you're tired
Or a bit run down
Can't seem to get your feet off the ground
Maybe you oughta try a little bit of LSD
Only if you want to
Shake your head and rattle your brain
Make you act just a bit insane
Give you all the psychic energy you need
Eat flowers and kiss babies
LSD..for you and me....
(from Acid Commercial)

Country Joe left The Fish after this album, getting married and recording a solo album. Barry Melton kept the band together either as The Fish or The Incredible Fish and individual band members wrote their own material. The band reformed a few months later as The Country Joe and The Fish Revue. Although nowhere near as good as their first two albums Together, which included the results of their individual enterprise still has some fine moments notably on An Untitled Protest- another anti-Vietnam protest song and The Streets Of Your Town and Bright Suburban Mr and Mrs Clean Machine which were both protests against their own environment. McDonald is still credited as one of the band on the album sleeve and he appeared on some of the tracks. During 1968 these were extensive personnel changes and as a result Here We Are Again was disappointing.

They appeared at the Woodstock Festival on 21-24 August 1969, with a modified line-up, and performed their infamous Fish Cheer, but only McDonald and Melton now remained from their definitive line-up. They also appeared in Michael Wadleigh's full length movie of the festival in 1970. The same line-up recorded their CJ Fish album. After this the band disintegrated. Briefly in the mid-seventies the whole 1967 line-up reformed for a series of live gigs and the disappointing Reunion album.

Barry Melton later recorded an album with Melton, Levy and The Dey Brothers.

We're The Crackers and All I Need which don't seem to appear elsewhere are on the Zachariah soundtrack LP. Death Sound Blues from 1968 can be found on California Christmas, Vol. 1.

Country Joe and the Fish were one of the best and most interesting of the late sixties San Francisco rock bands. Their first two albums remain classics of the genre.

(Vernon Joynson/Stephane Rebeschini)

01. Intro - Rock and Soul Music - Love 6:15
02. Here I Go Again 4:42
03. It's So Nice to Have Your Love 6:31
04. Flying High 12:36
05. Doctor Of Electricity 9:11
06. Donovan's Reef Jam 38:17

fileserve:  p1, p2